End Online: Volume 4 (14 page)

“Speaking of which, I came
here today for a purpose, Jude.”

“If there is anything at
all, please don’t hesitate to ask.”

“I happened to hear the
other week that you are acquaintances with a certain lady from the middle
district. Grace, I believe her name was.”

“I-I certainly do know a
Grace. I can assure you, I will spare no expense in arranging a meeting of
sorts.”

“You have my gratitude and
my debt. Should you ever require assistance, I am always available.”

Liam gives me smile so
charming that I cannot not accept it and return one myself. With our
conversation over, we briskly shake hands and I show the him to the door.

Once he is gone and out of
the way, I turn my attention toward my nieces who have been permitted to sleep
in far too long.

***************************************************
***************************************************

-Fen-

Lost is gone and I lie
face down on the brown leather couch, bored. There is the thing he calls a
‘Teevee’, but I have come to somewhat dislike it. Everything it shows is too
weird, almost alien. If I had to live in an existence like that, I don’t know
how I would stop myself from going insane.

I roll over,
unintentionally falling off the couch and onto the floor. I lie there,
completely still, staring at the ceiling. Apart from the wooden beams running
across, the ceiling has a textured white surface, something like paper. The
lights are paper lanterns too, but this is different.

‘Strange…’ 
I think to myself.

The ceiling has a
different texture than the lights, yet it looks just as fragile. If I could
reach the ceiling from where I am lying, I reckon I could poke a hole in it
with my finger. I start to wonder what is on the other side of the ceiling. Is
there another room? Is there the sky? Is there nothing?

I think about climbing up
on something to test it and see, but the thought soon escapes me. An unknown
amount of time passes as I start following random thoughts; counting my fingers
one by one, drawing little imaginary pictures in the air with my fingers, even
poking my body in random locations just to feel the pressure of my touch.

I suddenly feel Lost
coming and eagerly stand up, straightening my dress as I do so. Mist condenses
at one end of the room and forms into Lost. I have tried to follow him through it
when he leaves, just like when I followed him here, but my attempt ended in
failure.

I suspect he left and went
into the world shown on the ‘Teevee’, but no trace of him was left. It wasn’t
like he passed through some strange portal to get there, he simply vanished
like he was never there. I still can’t figure out how he does it.

“I’m back, Fen.”

“…Welcome… back.”

“Thanks. Well, I have a
few things I want to do, so let’s go.” He smiles gently and I eagerly follow
him back to where we left what he calls ‘End Online’.

Stepping through a 
shimmer
 in
the air, reality warps around me. When my surroundings stabilize, I am in the
middle of a bustling street. The stench of body odor and dust surrounds me
before Lost arrives and distracts me from my overloaded sense of smell.

“I want to take a look at
the colosseum. I have nothing better to do until everyone else arrives and
apparently I will find the solution to all my problems there.”

I feel a little confused.
Is he talking to me, or is he talking to himself? Sure, he is looking at me,
but I get the feeling he is simply voicing his thoughts.

With my nose slightly
scrunched up, I follow alongside him. While grabbing his arm, I pull myself
closer and allow his scent to overtake all the other smells assaulting my nose.
They say that snow has no scent, but Lost smells like snow. It is a comforting
fragrance that makes me feel bliss. I never noticed it at first, but when we
left the snow and entered the grass, the smell of snow still lingered on him.

Soon, we arrive at one of
the largest buildings in the city. The battle colosseum, second only in size to
the castle overlooking the city from the central, highest location.

The main entrance we are
looking at is overcrowded with people who are nearly fighting each other to get
in. I think about forming some ice to create a path for Lost and I, but I know
he gets irritated when I recklessly cause trouble.

He starts walking around
the building away from the crowd. We continue travelling around until we reach
another entrance. This one is much smaller than the last one, and has only a
few people crowding around it. But unlike the other large group, these people
look much tougher. The jagged armors and even fiercer weapons make me feel
cautious. I can tell at a glance that these players are strong, enough so that
Lost and I may have trouble fighting them.

They look over at us,
murmuring something so quietly that I can’t make out more than a few sparse
words.

Lost ignores them as he
passes through so I do as well. He approaches a much larger man standing next
to the door, fully equipped in heavy bronze armour with a medium round shield
in one hand and a spear in the other.

“Excuse me, I would like
to register as a gladiator.” He says politely to the guard.

I see the man visibly
swallow, and sweat a little on his forehead. Just like most of the people Lost
approaches, he reeks of fear.

“I’m sorry. Please forgive
me when I say, not just anyone can register as a gladiator.”

“Oh? That’s fine. What do
I need to do?”

The man tightens his grip
on his spear and adopts a frantic look in his eyes. He seems to wish to be
anywhere else but here, except for some reason can’t leave. It is a strange
dilemma to see someone in.

“Y-you need slay north…
no… slay two hundred ‘Antril Soldiers’ and bring their horns back here as
proof.”

“Okay, I accept, I will
bring you the horns of two hundred ‘Antril Soldiers’. Do you know where I can
find them?”

“Up north. In the Scorched
Plains.”

He names a place that I am
unfamiliar with, but I understand where north is.

“Thank you, we will be off
then.”

“B-best of luck.”

The man looks extremely
relieved as we turn and walk in the opposite direction. I don’t understand why
he is so nervous, I’m not about to hurt him and I don’t think Lost is either.
Some of these people are simply too strange. I miss the simplicity of my home
back in the snowy mountain cave. Sometimes I wish Lost and I could just go back
there and be happy.

The other, tougher people
standing around give us looks of bewilderment and surprise, but I can’t seem to
discern why. Still clinging to Lost, we leave the big colosseum and start
walking towards the outskirts of the city. As we walk, I hear him mutter under
his breath.

“Another twenty points of
infamy gained. But, it doesn’t matter anymore.”

-Fen-

After walking for most of
the day, Lost and I leave the city through the north gate. The evening sun
causes the shadows of large hills to blanket the area around us by the time we
finally leave the expanse outside Swordbreak.

Unclear about where we
should be heading, we move in a generally northern direction. The whole time we
keep an eye on the surroundings for the area that the man at the gate had
described. Progress would have been much faster if we knew exactly where we
needed to be, but the directions we received were simply too vague.

Just before the sun sets,
a group of people approach us. There are six in total, walking with their backs
slumped and their thumbs tucked into their belts. They smell of dirt and filth
and don’t seem particularly interesting to me.

As they stand in front of
us, a few of them lift their chins up to stare at Lost down their noses. They
also turn to greedily stare at me, their eyes flashing with desire. I’m not
entirely sure why, but seeing that makes me feel disgusted and angry.

“Hey, buddy. Do ya know
about the new tax to pass through this mountain?” The man in front asks Lost.

“Excuse me?” Lost’s face
darkens as he replies.

“Didn’t ya hear me?
There’s a new tax to pass through this mountain. Just hand over all yer gold,
and ya can be on yer way.”

Lost stares incredulously
at the player, not knowing how to reply for a moment.

“How the hell is that even
a tax?! A tax is when you have a set fee, usually a ridiculous amount, and
charge each person that. What you’re describing is just plain robbery!”

“Don’t mess with me, man.
Yer in for a world of hurt if ya don’t do as I say. So ya wanna set amount? Yer
a first time customer so I’ll take it easy on ya. Hand over a measly thousand
gold, and yer free to go.”

“How could I possibly have
that much?”

The man doesn’t make any
immediate moves and maintains a calm face, but he and his friends send glances
of lust in my direction.

“Such as shame. Well, ya
seem like a good guy so we’ll cut ya a break.”

He goes to move closer and
put a hand on Lost’s shoulder, but Lost takes a step back and avoids the hand
before I can send a shard of ice through it. I normally wouldn’t act that way
to someone just trying to grab Lost, but these people have an incredibly hostile
aura about them.

“I suppose we should just
be on our way then.”

“Ah, just one thing before
ya leave us here. As ya know, we’re turning a blind eye and letting ya go cause
ya seem like a good guy. But, the thing is, a good guy would probably leave his
girl with us as a sign of gratitude.”

The six men suddenly
surround us and close in to form a tight ring with their bodies. Stuck inside
the ring made of men, the only way out for us is to wait for them to leave, or
cut our way out. There also isn’t enough room to build momentum and jump out of
the encirclement.

I notice Lost’s face,
which is still smiling but contains fury in his eyes.

“I told ya, now do as we
say and leave the girl. Elsewise, we’ll send ya all the way back to Iceridge.
Yeah, we saw the sigil on yer hand.”

All the men place their
hands onto sword hilts and axe handles, ready to draw and attack us at any
moment. This is also the moment when Lost finally snaps.

“Fen! Attack, now!”

I don’t hesitate to
crystallize twelve large shards of ice. I train two on each target, and set
them with a strong forward momentum. Lost’s knives cut through half of the
enemies while my ice once again hits them all. It isn’t anywhere near enough to
kill them or cause serious damage, but the shock and surprise causes them to
lose formation and allow us to slip out.

“We run.” Lost says as he
disappears before my eyes.

I don’t question the order
and immediate follow north in the general direction Lost went. I run for five
full minutes before I notice the familiar silhouette up ahead. It is Lost, who
has slowed down enough that I can catch up.

I have been feeling
slightly inferior to Lost as of late. I don’t know exactly when it happened,
but he has since far outclassed me in terms of speed.

“They’re… gone…” I say once
I notice their scent is no longer on the wind.

“Yes, they have been gone
for a while. But they could still be chasing in our general direction. They
wouldn’t be the first people to do so.”

“Then… kill them…”

I consider eliminating
them to be the most practical solution to the problem, so I can’t understand
why we didn’t do it in the first place.

“Sorry, Fen, but it would
be best not to. If we do that I will get a player killer’s skull and that is
more trouble than it’s worth.”

I don’t understand. Why is
Lost concerned with some silly ‘skull’? Regardless, before I have a chance to
voice my thoughts, I notice we have arrived at the area described by the
armored man from the gate earlier.

The arid scenery in front
of me is covered in more red dirt than anything else. The ground has gone
through countless cycles of rain and drought, causing narrow fissures and deep
ravines. There are wooden bridges crossing some of the wider splits in the
earth, and a few descending paths carved into the walls.

I can see large ‘Antril
Workers’ spread out over the ground and quite a few armed men and women
fighting them. The monsters aren’t as strong as I am, yet all these people seem
to be having so much trouble with them.

Two ‘Antril Workers’ come
skittering towards Lost and I with incredible speed. I wonder, if I had six
legs would I be able to move faster?

I click my tongue at the
enemies, I can tell just from looking at them that they are highly resistant
against ice. They can also resist most fire damage, but the ice resistance is
the issue for me.

Just as Lost throws his
throwing knives at the enemies, I form two shortswords of similar shape to the
ones he used to use; a kodachi, I believe he said. These weapons are useful as
they not only deal ice damage, but ordinary damage as well.

Most of the knives land,
but the creature manages to shift its body weight and dodge a few. That is the
issue with enemies too large; they are easy to hit. Using my ice kodachis, I
take quick slices at its legs while doing my best to avoid the pincer grips in
front of its mouth.

The second ‘Antril Worker’
approaches from the side in an attempt to catch us unaware. Lost suddenly
appears behind it and drives both his weapons into its rear abdomen and causing
it to rear up on its hind legs.

Noticing the weak spot, I
form a few shards of ice in the air and launch them at the Antril’s rear
abdomen. The shards of ice have a 
much
 lower reaction in
comparison to Lost’s weapons. The creature did at least flinch and hesitate
long enough for me to close my blades on its body. The ice blades in my hands
slash at the joints between its head and central abdomen. The result is a
critical hit which finally fells the creature.

Turning my head around, I
see Lost has already finished off the second one. Just before I return to his
side, I realize I sustained next to no damage from the entire battle thanks to
my enhanced speed.

‘He hasn’t looked at
me yet.’

I turn away from Lost and
stab myself with the daggers a few times in succession. It hurts, but does the
job of efficiently lowering my health. Confirming my current condition, I make
my way over to Lost at a steady pace.

When I reach him, he
frowns at me and start rummaging through his inventory. He pulls out a handful
of green herbs.

“How did you get this
injured? I swear you were doing just fine over there. Anyway, open wide.” He
says with concern.

I happily open my mouth,
allowing him to places the herbs inside. Getting a little eager, I close my
mouth too quick and bite the ends of his fingers. He makes a quick cry of pain
as he slips his hand back and by flicking his hand like a whip, brings a sharp
chop down on top of my head.

“!”

I don’t hear what he says
as the pain from the hit brings forth ecstasy and causes my mind to stop
functioning properly. It is like someone else finally scratching an itch I
myself can’t reach.

For the next four hours,
Lost and I travel around this dry, dusty area.  We kill countless ‘Antril
Workers’, but can’t seem to find any ‘Antril Soldiers’. Given that searching
the plateaus on the ground level appears to be fruitless, we decide to start
looking in the ravines.

Picking a particularly
large ravine, we make our way down a narrow path leading into its depths. The
treacherous path isn’t wide enough for two people to walk abreast, so we walk
single-file, slowly and carefully. The sunlight initially reaches down to where
we are on the path, but gradually begins to fade the deeper it gets.

After five minutes, we
encounter the first opening along the ridge wall. The path continues deeper down
with no end in sight, but Lost leads the way into the cave without travelling
down further. The interior is quite dim. There aren’t any light sources nearby,
yet a gentle glow comes from deep within the cave.

A man and woman make their
way out of the hollow as we enter it. The woman is carrying a jewelled staff
while the man is wielding an oversized bastard sword and wearing a large set of
shiny black armor that melds into the darkness. I find my eyes strangely
affixed to them, or more precisely, their hands. That are holding each other.
The couple gives us an interested glance and shares an amiable smile as they
pass by.

The pathway breaks off
into multiple tunnels, and from one of them, a new type of Antril appears. It
is slightly larger than the ‘Antril Workers’, and considerably more bulky. By
looking at the large horn growing from the top of its head, I instantly
recognize it as an ‘Antril Warrior’, the enemy we have been looking for.

Just like the ‘Antril
Workers’, the warrior breed of the species also has high ice and fire
resistances. Planning to deal with the warriors the same as I did the workers,
I condense ice to form two kodachis. At the same time, Lost vanishes.

He reappears next to the
creature, cutting into its left legs. This enemy doesn’t collapse like the
others, but instead rears up on its hind legs. Seeing this as an opening, I
rush in to attack the underside of its body. I only notice the front two legs
of the enemy glowing in a dull yellow glow when I am a few feet away. Sensing
the impending danger, I stop my assault and back away at top speed.
Unfortunately, I am too close as its glowing legs come slamming back into the
ground.

Initially, I only feel a
slight vibration through the ground, but the second wave of force that hits me
is completely incomparable to the first. Like a hammer swung by a giant, it
blows me back like a rag doll and I lose control of my limbs while flying. I
glimpse Lost just after my feet leave the ground, who turns into a blur rushing
toward me.

Lost passes by and around
me and I feel myself hit him. His arms wrap around me as he does his best to
catch and protect me. My chest flutters from the feeling of him holding me, and
despite the enemy fast approaching us, I wish this moment would continue
indefinitely.

“Fen, are you ok?” He
whispers into my ear.

I don’t say anything, but
I nod, embarrassed.

“You need to be more
careful. Especially against an enemy we don’t know anything about.”

He is wrong, I do know
about this enemy, the same way I know about all enemies. I cannot see any
information about the enemy, but the knowledge is like a memory from the past.
I simply wasn’t expecting it to attack like that.

He lets go of me and I
stand still for a moment, savoring the feeling of being embraced. As soon as
the feeling fades, I move again to engage the Antril. The creature is
incredibly tough, but soon falls to the ground dead under our combined assault.

“Strange,” Lost say while
frowning upon the corpse, “it didn’t drop its horn. Perhaps it isn’t a common
drop.”

We encounter another five
‘Antril Warriors’ in the cave, yet none seem to drop their horns. After the
fifth victory, we find the light source from the cave. The tunnel abruptly
ends, leading us onto one of the pathways in a separate ravine. The whole area
must be riddled with these tunnels, leading in between the ravines in a massive
network.

Following the path deeper
into this ravine, the walls close together enough at one point that we easily
jump across to the path on the other side and enter another tunnel.

We soon encounter another
‘Antril Warrior’, and while Lost is busy contemplating why no horns seem to be
dropping, I get an idea. Without saying anything to Lost, as soon as we
encounter the creature, I aim my ice blade directly at the horn on its head.

There is some resistance
as the blade connects with the horn, but my ice proves to be denser and cuts
the horn clean off its head.